Wattenbarger wins marathon match as Garces captures Division II championship
| Thursday, Nov 05 2009 10:49 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Nov 05 2009 10:50 PM
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Casey Christie / The Californian Garces hitter, Abby Wattenbarger, plays Thursday in Visalia against Redwood's Nusheen Orandi, during the Division II tennis championships at In Shape Sport-Visalia.
Casey Christie / The Californian Garces tennis player Gracie Jacobs, hustles after the ball Thursday in Visalia while playing against Redwood's Gabrielle Gatewood, in the Division II tennis championships at In Shape Sport-Visalia.
Casey Christie / The Californian Garces High tennis player, Zoe Tucker, concentrates on a return from Redwood's Alexis Rico, during Thursday's Division II tennis championships at In Shape Sport-Visalia.
Casey Christie / The Californian Carly Tucker with Garces tennis hits a return to her opponent, Redwood's Jasmine Woodruff, during Division II tennis championships in Visalia Thursday.
Casey Christie / The Californian Garces player, Crimson Hochhalter, plays in the Division II tennis championships, Thursday, in Visalia at the In Shape Sport-Visalia tennis club.
Casey Christie / The Californian Power lines seem to run through the sunsetting along Highway 99, Thursday evening north of town.
Casey Christie / The Californian Garces' Gracie Jacobs hits a hard return, Thursday, in Visalia during her championship match.
Casey Christie / The Californian Crimson Hochhalter, Garces player, returns a tough shot, during Thursday's DIvision II tennis championships in Visalia against Redwood.
Casey Christie / The Californian Abby Wattenbarger, Garces tennis player, makes a quick move for the ball Thursday in Visalia.
Casey Christie / The Californian Garces' Zoe Tucker, takes a look around the court, Thursday, in Visalia during a break before returning to action in the Division II tennis championships.
VISALIA -- There are many ways to measure an epic tennis match.
Importance? Check. A singles win from Abby Wattenbarger against Nusheen Orandi would give Garces the Division II Central Section title; a loss would keep the Rams' final with Visalia-Redwood in doubt going into doubles play Thursday evening at In Shape-Visalia Racquet Club.
Twists and turns? Check. Wattenbarger battled back from a 1-6, 0-3 deficit to win the second set 7-5 and the third-set tiebreaker 10-5 amid disputed line calls, disputed scoring, more disputed line calls and an ever-growing crowd.
Wattenbarger's eventual victory, which lasted more than an hour longer than any other singles match, gave Garces a 5-1 lead that eliminated Redwood, the defending champion. The Rams (27-1) went on to sweep the then-meaningless doubles, surprising the top seed by an 8-1 score after Redwood (20-4) beat Garces 7-2 in last year's Division II championship.
"When (Garces coach Barb Johnston) told me the team score, I was like, 'There's no way I'm losing this match right now," Wattenbarger said. "We're not going into doubles unsure."
Length? Double-check. The match lasted three hours, 35 minutes. Several rallies went more than 100 shots, and when Wattenbarger won 87- and 103-shot rallies to close out the tiebreaker, Orandi was so exhausted that she collapsed into an assistant coach's arms, overcome with dehydration and cramps. An ambulance was called as a precaution, but Orandi appeared to be OK after a few scary minutes of rest.
But above all, the No. 2 singles match was about Wattenbarger, who couldn't match Orandi for power and shot-making but was determined to out-last her.
"We talked about playing every point," Johnston said. "If you get down, fight back. It's by far our best win. It means a lot because of the competition we had to beat. If you win easy, you don't savor that quite as much. But this is going to have me smiling for a long time."
Zoe Tucker also made a singles comeback, beating Alexis Rio 3-6, 6-4, 10-5 at No. 3 singles, and her sister Carly Tucker beat Jasmine Woodruff 6-3, 6-3.
"I didn't expect that it would be like last year," Redwood coach Rosemarie Lewis said. "But I also didn't expect that we would lose in singles. I thought at worst it would go 3-all. But they played great and they deserve it."
Crimson Hochhalter and Annie Berry also won singles matches for the Rams. Wattenbarger teamed with Gracie Jacobs, Carly Tucker with Sarah McDermott and Nia Hronis with Kelly Hosey for the doubles wins.
As it turned out, the only match Garces lost was the No. 1 singles match between two of the section's best. Redwood senior Gabrielle Gatewood, the two-time defending section singles champion, beat Jacobs, a freshman, 6-1, 6-4. Gatewood is seeded No. 1 and Jacobs No. 3 in this year's singles tournament, which concludes Saturday on these same courts.
"I don't think Gabrielle has had that kind of battle for a while," Johnston said.
Everywhere else, Garces was more than up to the task -- especially on the No. 2 singles court, where Wattenbarger wasn't going to give in.
"When we run, I've kind of always been the leader," Wattenbarger said. "So that kind of prevailed. I knew I was in better shape, and I knew I could keep going and not stop. I just stayed within myself, figured out how to get points and battled back.
"... We won Valley my sophomore year (in Division IV) but it's nothing compared to this, especially after the singles match I had. I'm just really happy with my team and the way they fought."
